His safety seeks: the herd, unkindly wise,
Or chases him from thence or from him flies.
Like a declining statesman, left forlorn

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285

To his friends' pity, and pursuers' scorn,
With shame remembers while himself was one 275
Of the same herd, himself the same had done.
Thence to the coverts and the conscious groves,
The scenes of his past triumphs and his loves,
Sadly surveying where he rang'd alone,
Prince of the soil, and all the herd his own,
And like a bold knight-errant did proclaim
Combat to all, and bore away the dame,
And taught the woods to echo to the stream
His dreadful challenge and his clashing beam;
Yet faintly now declines the fatal strife,
So much his love was dearer than his life.
Now ev'ry leaf, and ev'ry moving breath
Presents a foe, and ev'ry foe a death.
Weary'd, forsaken, and pursu’d, at last
All safety in despair of safety plac'd,
Courage he thence resumes, resolv'd to bear
All their assaults, since 'tis in vain to fear.
And now, too late, he wishes for the fight
That strength he wasted in ignoble flight;
But when he sees the eager chase renew'd,
Himself by dogs, the dogs by men pursu'd,
He straight revokes his bold resolve, and more
Repents his courage than his fear before;

290

295

Finds that uncertain ways unsafest are,

And doubt a greater mischief than despair.

300 Then to the stream, when neither friends, nor force, Nor speed, nor art, avail, he shapes his course; Thinks not their rage so desp'rate to essay An element more merciless than they. But fearless they pursue, nor can the flood Quench their dire thirst: alas! they thirst for blood. So t'wards a ship the oar-f ar-finn'd gallies ply,

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Which wanting sea to ride, or wind to fly,
Stands but to fall reveng`d on those that dare
Tempt the last fury of extreme despair.
So fares the stag; among th' enraged hounds,
Repels their force, and wounds returns for wounds:
And as a hero, whom his baser foes

...

315

In troops surround, now these assails, now those,
Tho' prodigal of life, disdains to die
By common hands; but if he can descry
Some nobler for approach, to him he calls,
And begs his fate, and then contented falls.
So when the King a mortal shaft lets fly
From his unerring hand, then glad to die,
Proud of the wound, to it resigns his blood,
And stains the crystal with a purple flood.
This a more innocent and happy chase
Than when of old, but in the self-same place,
Fair Liberty pursu'd*, and meant a prey
To lawless Power, here turn'd, and stood at bays

320

་ *3་

3254

* Runny Mead, where the Magna Charta was first sealed.

When in that remedy all hope was plac'd

330

Which was, or should have been at least, the last.
Here was that Charter seal'd wherein the crown
All marks of arbitrary power lays down :
Tyrant and slave, those names of hate and fear,
The happier style of king and subject bear :
Happy when both to the same centre move,
When kings give liberty and subjects love.
Therefore not long in force this Charter stood; 335
Wanting that seal, it must be seal'd in blood,
The subjects arm'd, the more their princes gave,
Th' advantage only took the more to crave :
Till kings, by giving, gave themselves away,
And ev❜n that power that should deny betray. 340
"Who gives constrain'd, but his own fear reviles,
"Not thank'd, but scorn'd; nor are they gifts, but
spoils."

Thus kings, by grasping more than they could hold,
First made their subjects by oppression bold;
And popular sway, by forcing kings to give 345
More than was fit for subjects to receive,!
Ran to the same extremes; and one excess :
Made both, by striving to be greater, less...
When a calm river, rais'd with sudden rains, ...
Or snows dissolv'd, o'erflows th' adjoining plains,
The husbandinen with high-rais'd banks secure 351.
Their greedy hopes, and this he can endure ; :
But if with bays and dams they strive to force:
His channel to a new or narrow course,

1

No longer then within his banks he dwells,
First to a torrent, then a deluge, swells;
Stronger and fiercer by restraint, he roars,

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357

And knows no bound, but makes his pow'r his shores.

ON THE EARL OF STRAFFORD's

TRIAL AND DEATH.

GREAT Strafford! worthy of that name, tho' all
Of thee could be forgotten but thy fall,
Crush'd by imaginary treason's weight,
Which too much merit did accumulate.

As chymists gold from brass by fire would draw, 5
Pretexts are into treason forg'd by law.
His wisdom such, at once it did appear

Three kingdom's wonder, and three kingdoms fear,
Whilst single he stood forth, and seem`d, altho’
Each had an army as an equal foe.

ΤΟ

Such was his force of eloquence, to make
The hearers more concern'd than he that spake.
Each seem'd to act that part he came to see
And none was more a looker on than he.
So did he move our passions, some were known 15
To wish, for the defence, the crime their own.
Now private pity strove with public hate,
Reason with rage, and eloquence with fate,

Now they could him if he could them forgive;
He's not too guilty, but too wise to live :

20

Less seem those facts which Treason's nickname bore Than such a fear'd ability for more.

They after death their fears of him express,

His innocence and their own guilt confess.
Their legislative frenzy they repent,

Enacting it should make no precedent.

25

This fate he could have scap'd, but would not lose
Honour for life, but rather nobly chose
Death from their fears than safety from his own,
That his last action all the rest might crown.

ON MY LORD CROFT's

30

AND MY JOURNEY INTO POLAND, : From whence we brought 10,000 for his Majesty, by the decimation of his Scottish subjects there.